Help with plumbing please

[Wooden Rivet]

Hello all. I am new to Airstreams and also new to the forums. Please forgive any mistakes I'm making, but I really need to get this plumbing worked out. We just bought a '71 Tradewind Land Yacht. The water lines have been cut going to the kitchen. The picture I hope you will see is in the roadside wardrobe where the water heater will go. The lower connection will be the cold water feed to the water heater. The top connection will be hot water from the heater. I think the connection within the box in the picture is a check valve. What attaches to it, and where it eventually goes is a mystery to me. I have lurked long enough to know that their are some very knowledgable people in this forum. It is my hope that someone will be able to help me.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be.
Tom

[markdoane]

I believe what you have there is a pressure relief valve. The flare fitting on the outlet should be routed throught the floor to a safe drain location.

See this thread.

[Lothlorian]

Tom:

I was in your position about 1 year ago. I am not a plumber and I had some missing and some with holes in the pipe. I replaced my hot water heater and ran all new pipe. There really is not much to it. You can buy pex pipe pretty cheap and use shark bite fittings which are pricey. The pex comes in blue for cold and red for hot. I have a 73 Overlander and almost all my plumbing was in the back where you could access to it from the trunk.

There are several photos on forum where people lay out the pipes.
I followed this guys plans to the letter. I copied his pictures and repeated his work by using only my visual learning style. I would look at the picture and do what he did. I had no clue what I was doing and it worked. I used the gray quest fittings but two weeks ago I changed them out with shark bites.

If the rest of your plumbing is OK then all you have to do is put that back together.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f169...der-21030.html

Brian

[Wooden Rivet]

Thanks to all who post. I went out to the AS and looked at the object in question with a magnifier and it does resemble a pressure relief on residential heaters. Can't make out the printing on the end though. Let's assume Mark was correct. Should there also be a check valve to prevent water from being forced out when operating the pump @ tank? If so, where is it located? I am planning to use a regulator at the faucet to protect hose and plumbing. Will this be enough pressure protection? Now on to the water tank itself. Removed it yesterday to make sure it was okay. Luck was with me. Service manual shows one vent line. Mine seems to have two. I do not know what they hook up to. Right now there is a 6" piece of plastic pipe on each one. Can anyone tell me where the drain valves for the water tank and for the whole piping system are located on

[Lumatic]

The valve in the box is definitely a pressure relief valve. I have a 71 Tradewind and can send you photos if you send me a PM

[markdoane]

You need the check valve, (aka backflow preventer) to keep your water from running out of the open city water inlet when you turn on the pump.

It's also legally required to prevent you from pumping any of your water into the city water mains when you are hooked up to city water.

I don't have a '71, but normally the drain for the tank will be on the same line as the pump. Can't help on the dual vents either, I just make sure they lead outside and are protected from bug entry.

[Lumatic]

To be clear, the valve in the box is a pressure relief valve, not a check valve although both serve a real function. Nothing else attaches to the pressure relief valve. It has an inlet connection, an outlet connection and a relief outlet not connected to anything. The purpose of the pressure relief valve is to dump excessive pressure so you don't blow out the rest of your plumbing.

I learned this is a pressure relief valve the hard way. I got lazy and did not put on the pressure regulator I usually have on my hose at a campground in Co because there were too many mosquitos out there. The next morning I woke up to my carpet completely soaked. When I asked the campground host he said "the pressure is a little bit high". The elec hookup also had reversed polarity blowing some fuses to boot. The check valve in my 71 Tradewind is in the same general area as the water heater but is a bigger more vertical deal.

By the way, when you put the hot water heater back in think about a water heater bypass which will make winterization easier. You could also use an on demand hot water heater although they are more pricey than the standard ones.

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by Lumatic

To be clear, the valve in the box is a pressure relief valve, not a check valve although both serve a real function. .

Yeah, we know the item in the first post is a relief valve.

The check valve I'm referring to is from the follow-up question.

[Lumatic]

Originally Posted by Wooden Rivet

Can anyone tell me where the drain valves for the water tank and for the whole piping system are located on

There are three valves with round handles in a hole in the floor under the galley cabinet. One is a low point drain. The other 2 dump the water in the pipes. There may also be some similar valves at the bottom of the curbside bathroom closet.

[Wooden Rivet]

Hello all,
Thanks so much to everyone. Very helpful bunch of people. Nice to meet you all. I think I'm about to get a glimmer of how this should look when it's hooked up. I have pressure relief that needs to go through the floor. Also need check valve mounted preferably right after hose hookup. Pressure regulation taken care of @ campground hose bib. Guess I will stick with copper for now. Have new gas/electric water heater w/electronic ignition. Now I need to locate drains & vent tank to outside. It's beginning to sound like a plan. Plan is not in concrete yet, so if anyone sees a mistake coming up, please let me know.
Thank you so much for taking time to help.

Tom